“What would you do to make Russellville a better place to live, to work, and to play?”

That is the question posed by Mayor Bill Eaton to residents via an introductory video for a new online initiative, involveRussellville.org.

The idea behind the website is to create an idea-sharing community that allows city leaders to post topics and ask for feedback from residents. Eaton described the initiative as a fairly new technology that will allow people to connect with City Hall in innovative ways.

“In order for my administration to reach out to as many Russellville residents as possible, we are expanding the way we gather input from you on important issues impacting our city,” he said.

The process to sign up for the site is simple. A resident can simply visit www.involveRussellville.org and create a login using an email address or by linking to an existing social media account. A small amount of information, such as year of birth, will be requested for demographic purposes. Users can opt to include more information if they choose.

Once logged in, users can navigate through different ideas posed by community leaders. Within those topics, users can add ideas and feedback, as well as view and comment on other users’ ideas.

Current topics on the site include complete streets initiatives, bike-friendly streets, pedestrian-friendly streets, the future of downtown Russellville and capital improvement programs.

“Right now, most of the initiatives have come out of Public Works and the downtown master plan process, but we expect to see opportunities to talk about perhaps the Aquatic Center, perhaps the fire station, the sales tax initiative itself,” Michael Oakes, Public Works Director, said.

Users are semi-anonymous, identified by their first name, last initial and a number. For example, John Doe’s comments would appear as posts by “John D5.”

Ideas and feedback will be viewed by city officials, including Eaton, members of the City Council and department heads. Users can click on the “Who’s Listening” tab within the site to view a list of city officials monitoring feedback on the site.

Eaton encouraged those who do not have Internet access or who may not be comfortable with using the program to continue using traditional means of communicating with City Hall.